Zmanda Software to hire 60 people
Zmanda—a software provider in open source backup and recovery, plans to hire 60 people in the next two years for its development center in Pune, which currently employs 12 people. “The majority of our investment in engineering resources will be done in Pune and we expect this center to become Zmanda’s development backbone,” said Chander Kant, CEO of California-based Zmanda.

“Pune, with its focus on open source, and thriving storage software ecosystem and talented workforce, is an ideal place for Zmanda to set up its product development organization,” he informed. Industry watchers were pleased with Zmanda’s latest move. “With enterprise- class products from Zmanda rolling out of Pune, the open source community and businesses will benefit to a great extent,” said Sudhanwa Jogalekar, secretary of the Pune Linux Users Group.

Cellebrum plans to double its headcount
Telecom value added services (VAS) solutions provider Cellebrum announced an investment by Lehman Brothers in the company. The company has close to 200 employees in India currently and is now planning to double its headcount in a few months. It recently set up shop in Chennai to focus on regional content in its efforts to tap the South Indian market. The fund will also be used for the incubation of next generation VAS services and platforms.

Cellebrum marketing head, Savinder Sarna informed that the company has plans to acquire firms in the content space, especially mobile gaming companies. It has already initiated aggressive plans to offer its services through major mobile service providers in the country. Cellebrum provides services to a host of telecom service providers like Idea, Reliance, Spice, Bharti, Hutch, BSNL, and MTNL.

Thales to set up avionics center in India
French defense, aerospace and electronics major Thales has decided to set up a modern avionics center in the country early next year. Though the size of investment will be around $5-7 million, it will be an important development for India and part of Thales’ strategy to be a “multi-domestic company” in markets it operates in.

“We have decided on the center, but are exploring whether it will be in Delhi or Mumbai,” said Francois Dupont, Thales country director for India. The center will provide maintenance and support in areas like integrated modular avionics solutions, cockpit display systems, flight management systems, flight control systems, communications, navigation and surveillance systems.

“The unit will have around 40-50 high-end engineers to begin with. If we decide to make it a regional center—catering to other markets in Asia—then we will add some more people,” Dupont added.

Aperto to build local manufacturing facility
Aperto Networks, manufacturer of WiMAX Forum Certified base stations and subscriber units, announced significant investments in India. Around two-thirds of the ‘several million dollars’ investment will go into sprucing up the R&D efforts, while the rest will be used for establishing sales and customer support infrastructure.

Aperto’s Bangalore development center is expanding into a facility three times its original size. As regards to engineering activities, Aperto is also setting up a customer support center in the city to provide level one and level two support to service providers across India as well other regions of the world. In addition, the company is planning to establish an India distribution and repair facility.

The company also stated that it is in the final stages of talks with partners to set up a manufacturing facility in India.